ED 7720 - Time, time, and more time.

A reflection on OCC.

I work in a technical high school. Our students spend half of their school year learning a trade. They spend approximately two weeks in academics, then two weeks in "shop," repeat. For some students, this is what keeps them in school. I have heard so many stories from parents who say, "After so many years, my child wakes up eager to go to school."

It was fascinating reading the article about the Social Studies study. As we create more and more history, our teachers must cover more material. As it is, our school system starts after the Civil War. As world politics change, our Global Studies gets more complicated. Street Law, Economics, Psychology... there is so much to cover. Our teachers get a defined curriculum and 90 days of potential instruction time. It is no wonder students don't "get" Social Studies!

Yet Social Studies is life. The politics of people becomes the politics of countries. Our students need practice communicating in constructive ways. They certainly aren't getting many good examples from Washington Politicians! The Global Ed program sounds like it brings something that feels like real life into classrooms. SPT, social perspective taking, sounds like a good way to be heard and to listen - scaffolding for real life situations.

The final product/project is not a "mash up" of material found on the inernet, but it carries the components of good Online Content Construction. There is planning and generating a perspective while researching a topic, organizing and composing their position and presentation, and revising as they learn new information from the groups with which they negotiate.

When our Social Studies department organizes their annual debate, many students immerse themselves in the activity. Though the research isn't as thorough as I would hope (I have been a judge), the students love to "one up" their classmates. Teens crave social interaction.

In the Gehlbach article, it did not surprise me that, although they were burnt out by their Global Ed topic, the students were energized about the social aspects of Social Studies -- which is really what the subject is all about - human interaction with their environment and each other.

Gehlbach, H. et al. Increasing Interest in Social Studies: Social perspective taking and self-efficacy in
     stimulating simulations. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 33 (2008) 894–914.

O'Byrne, W. Online Content Construction: Empowering Students as Readers and Writers of Online
     Information. IGI Global (2014) 276-297.